Thursday, September 23, 2010

This Luca Gudagnino film is a melodramatic tragedy that resembles Italian cinema of another era with good cinematography (especially Milan in winter), elegant settings and a story that the best part for me was visiting the upper class lifestyle as the Recchi family private life was like a microcosm of everything that seems fine but it’s a melting pot ready to burst.

The last comment describes better what the story is all about as you get introduced to all characters at a dinner party and while you watch you start to try to guess that from all the seemly perfect individuals who is going to burst and propel the drama and as the story evolves you keep guessing wrongly until one character, perhaps the most perfect of all, starts to get out of the perfect life that somehow looks like the perfect prison. I believe that this is movie where you have to pay attention to the little details in words and in what you look so if you don’t appreciate very-slow story development –perfect life is not really entertaining- you will surely get bored and miss when the drama explodes to continue with tragedy and ‘crazy’ freedom. Even if I made the story seem simple have to add that story and film are quite complex.

The complete cast performs well but Tilda Swinton absolutely steals the film, she’s unbelievably good in this role and just because her performance this is a must be seen film. Still I was impressed with Alba Rohrwacher performance but she was so little in the screen that I wished her character had more time and can’t help to mention that it was a true pleasure to see Marisa Berenson again in the big screen.

Can’t say that I enjoyed a lot the film, but when the one character that burst goes wild the film becomes more interesting and engaging not only because actor performance but also filmmaker decision to use extra-close close-ups to accentuate the impact of what happens. (This is me trying to not spoil the story for those that haven’t seen the film).

Do I recommend it? Yes I do, especially to watch Tilda Switon performance and if you like Italian cinema of the 50’s and 60’s you have to watch this Luca Guadagnino film that definitively looks and feels like the work of master directors of that era (s). I saw in here traces of Pasolini (yes, from my favorite movie of all times), Visconti, and maybe Rosellini, but mainly Italian critics’ mention in their film critics many more great master filmmakers.